Hell & Back || TYLER SBG

Chapter 9: Graveyard Talks

"That's...peculiar" Aiden smiled down at the pile of black sludge that the phantom became after being hit with light.

"Disgusting is more like it." A grimace spread across Tyler's face.

Ben looked absolutely disgusted, Ashlyn tilted her head looking at it, and Danica and Taylor gagged. It was one thing to see it. The smell was a whole different story.

Footsteps approached from the back of the bus. Logan stumbled over, adjusting his glasses back onto his face.

"What...?" He squinted a bit, groggy from waking up. His hand grabbed at his bandaged torso.

"You woke up pretty quick," Danica commented, although her voice carried concern. He should probably be sitting down.

"Are you feeling any better?" Taylor asked, a weak smile forming on her face, trying to be as comforting as she possibly could be in the situation.

Logan glanced down, shrugging lightly, "...not really."

It didn't take him long to see the phantom though. His eyes immediately widened at the sight, "What happened to it?!"

"Turns out if you expose these things to light, they start to wig out and turn to goop," Aiden laughed, "Looks like their bodies start to twist, and bubble, and spaz-,"

Danica gagged again at his description. She had to turn away from the direction of the phantom. "Okay, Aiden. We get it, that's enough."

Tyler nodded, glancing away from the thing, "I think he gets the picture. Quit before you make everyone sick."

It was one thing to have it described without being awake to experience it. But the other six were there. The image of the thing spiking and becoming all goopy replayed in Danica's mind.

"Since he's awake now though," Tyler said, resting a hand on his hip, "Let's talk about Savannah."

They were all expecting that. It was a conversation they'd had multiple times before, the brunette boy usually being the one to bring it up. Although it was never really a civilized conversation. It always turned into an argument.

Like now for instance. They all sat around each other on the bus. It started off as a normal discussion. Then it escalated. Like it always did.

"We can't keep hoping that things will go back to normal on their own," Tyler sat across the aisle from Ashlyn, agitated like he always us when Savannah was brought up.

"And we can't risk getting stuck here permanently," the redhead argued.

The two glared at each other. Every time they interacted an uncomfortable tension filled the space. It was like they could tear each other apart at any moment.

"Um..." Taylor chimed in, her tone a breath of fresh air compared to the other two, "...going back doesn't mean we have to go back to the house again, or interact with the phantom, right?"

Danica sat in the circle, biting her cheek as she tried to think of something. The conversation needed to open up to more than just Ashlyn and Tyler, or else they were going to rip each other's hair out.

"We could always ask the locals, they're bound to know something," she said, "Sure, we've read up on the myths and lore these past two weeks, but we haven't found anything useful. The people who actually live there probably know better than some sketchy articles."